The future of human evolution: stimulating debate on matters of national interest

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Good evening and welcome to the 2018 Boyer Lecture Series, presented by Australian gene therapy pioneer Professor John Rasko.

I am Dr Kirstin Ferguson, Acting Chair of the ABC, and I am honoured to introduce the series.

We are gathered tonight to hear Professor Rasko’s first lecture, which is being recorded for ABC Television.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Boyers, which exemplify the ABC’s commitment to stimulating debate on matters of national interest. Each year, the ABC Board is proud to select a prominent Australian to deliver the Lectures. It does so with a firm eye to independence and to the ABC’s Charter remit to be the source of national conversations.

Since 1959, Prime Ministers, Governors General, High Court judges, vice chancellors, archbishops, artists, business leaders, poets and others have provoked discussion and set agendas, acting firmly within the goals and ambitions set by the Lecture’s architects.

In 1989, Australian philosopher Professor Max Charlesworth gazed into the future with his landmark Boyer Lectures on life, death, genes and ethics. Nearly three decades later, Professor John Rasko revisits those themes in his lecture series titled Life Re-Engineered.

Professor Rasko is an Australian pioneer in gene and stem cell therapies and uniquely placed to examine the future of science, medicine and humanity.

He is President of the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy;

Head of the Department of Cell & Molecular Therapies at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and

Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney’s Centenary Institute.

In 2012, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for services to biomedical research in the field of gene and cell therapy, as a clinician, author, administrator and philanthropist.

His lectures come at a crucial time in medical science. Advances in gene- and cell-based technologies have the power to prolong life and shape our evolution as a species. Future breakthroughs in biotechnology open the possibility of a world without disease, disability and suffering.

But where might we draw the line in shaping and reshaping our genetic legacy: Between disease-free babies and designer babies? Between decent health and the demand for perfection?

As Professor Rasko will discuss in his first Boyer Lecture tonight, the ethical issues raised by genetic testing and gene therapy are complex and vital for us all. Across all four lectures, which will be aired on ABC RN and available as podcasts, he hopes to provoke debate about gene therapy and how it might affect our lives, for good and ill.

His lectures will be challenging and, at times, confronting, forcing us to examine our own beliefs about what it means to be human. They will reach deep into our myths and legends and our desire for immortality.

The old sci-fi movie The Blob gets a mention. So, too, the flawed god of the ancient Greeks Prometheus, described as the “poster boy of regenerative medicine”. Mary Shelley’s inspired character, Dr Frankenstein, is the “modern Prometheus,” creating life but incapable of facing his creation.

There are references to the men and women frozen in liquid nitrogen in the hope of attaining a future life and the biotech CEO who has attempted to turn back her biological clock with gene therapy.

Professor Rasko argues that we have reached a point in human history where the power to direct the course of our own evolution is in our grasp. But the series has one burning question at its core: While we might have the power to genetically re-engineer ourselves, do we have the wisdom and compassion to do so humanely?

Putting together the Boyers is a complex and time-consuming task. I would like to thank all those involved at the ABC for their hard work in bringing you this year’s lectures, particularly ABC Head of Specialist content Judith Whelan, Series Producer Ian Coombe, Manager of Religion & Ethics Joe Gelonesi, Audio Engineers Judy Rapley and Russell Stapleton, who also composed the theme and original music for the series, and Digital Lead Siobhan Hegarty.

Tonight’s event and the ABC TV broadcast would not have been possible without the efforts of Production Executive Tim Pyke, Series Producer Marie Davies, Production Manager Carly Mooney and Community Engagement Coordinator David Seale. My thanks to you all.

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